Did a severed human head and hands help solve a missing persons case in Colorado?

A severed human head and hands were discovered in a freezer at a recently-sold home in Grand Junction, CO, in January, and investigators have now determined who the body parts belonged to: 16-year-old Amanda Leariel Overstreet, according to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office.

Also, according to the Mesa County Sheriff, Overstreet was last seen in 2005, but no missing person report was ever filed. The sheriff’s office said Overstreet was the daughter of the home’s previous owner. According to a Mesa County Coroner’s Office statement on Facebook, the circumstances of Overstreet’s disappearance and homicide were under investigation. Overstreet lived in both Grand Junction and Harris County, TX, near Houston. The rest of Overstreet’s remains have not been found, the coroner’s statement added.

What happened to Amanda Overstreet?

According to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office, the home where Overstreet’s head and hands were found had been completely remodeled. The new owners reportedly held a garage sale after buying the property, and when it was sold, the people who purchased the freezer made the grim discovery. Investigators searched the rest of the property, but no other evidence was found.

Speaking with the Daily Mail, Mesa County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Wendy Likes said Overstreet’s mother, Leanne Overstreet Imer, 55, was still alive and living in Grand Junction. Overstreet’s stepfather, Bradley Imer, died at the age of 61 in 2021 from COVID-19 complications.

Leanne and Bradley reportedly had two biological children, Elsie Belle and Anthony Imer. When asked about whether Overstreet’s biological father had been identified or questioned, Likes declined to comment.

“They were strange people”

Many questions remain about what happened to Overstreet in 2005. Unconfirmed social media comments only add to the mystery. Responding to a Mesa County Sheriff’s post, one comment claimed to be “best friends” with Elsie Belle Imer in high school. The comment called the Imers “strange people” and alleged they were “hoarders.” The comment said that despite being “best friends,” an older sister, Amanda, was never mentioned.

Meanwhile, on Reddit, another commenter claimed to have gone to school with Overstreet in Texas. The comment alleged that Overstreet had been adopted by her grandparents when she was 3, but when her grandmother died from cancer, she left to live with her mom, Leanne, in Colorado, but their relationship was troubled. Leanne told other family members she was bringing Overstreet back to Texas, but Leanne was never seen again.

According to the unconfirmed Reddit comment, Leanne told the rest of Overstreet’s family she ran away. “A few of [Overstreet’s] close friends have been quietly digging around for what happened to her since she went missing around 2005. Everyone always suspected the mom (Leanne Overstreet Imer).” Why someone would store human remains in a freezer and then remodel and sell the home remains one of the biggest unanswered questions in the mystery.

The Imers’ former neighbor, Jameson Perez, remembers Overstreet and confirms that the Imers’ house was in poor condition while the Imers lived there. “I would walk my dogs about once every other day, and just walking by the house, you just smelled mildew. It would make you sick walking by. The last time we saw the little girl was when she was on her way to school,” Perez said. When news broke of the severed head and hands, Perez said he suspected it could relate to Overstreet’s disappearance.

Referring to the case, Mesa County Sheriff spokesperson Wendy Likes said, “We still have a lot of forensic testing that we need to do on evidence and a lot of interviews still to complete … A child went missing, and there’s no record that anyone reported her missing, and that’s very sad. So we want to be sure that it’s a thorough investigation, that we get all the details and the facts right,” according to The Durango Herald.